Just wondering, have anyone worked on a rule set for sieges for WotR? I have some ideas floating around but I don't want to work on it until I see what people have came up with.

Siege doesn't work in Wotr that's a fact I tried it a lot of time but there are no good rules for siege mostly because magic ruin's everything.

You could try playing WotR outside, and any models that reach the walls switch to LotR ruleset at that point. Everything more than 2" from the walls would play WotR all the time, but closer they would start using ladders and other siege equipment as per LotR rules.

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Coordinator of the Great British Hobbit League

What spells particularly were causing the problem? So far Defensible Terrain seems to function pretty well even with magic involved and I would have thought sieges would just be treated similar to major Defensible Terrain. It would seem silly that you can't play out a good siege with WotR rules since the attacks on Gondor and Minas Tirith are really the key examples of this scale battle from the current books / films. Oh...but this is GW...

"We're not satisfied, until YOU'RE not satisfied."

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

i know natures wrath demolishes things in defensible terrain.

the fixes i feel you would need to conduct a wotr are as follows

1: walls and towers of a castle would need to be reclassified. as i said natures wrath would own and the rules for attacking and defending i dont think work to well for such structures.

2: the game would have to end when the defenses are breached or the inside of the castles would have to be accommidating to formations maneuvering. i think most sieges were for gone conclusions if the enemy busts through the door and would take on more of a mellee feel not an organised mass battle.

3: you would need siege equipment either paying for it or making ladders freee ( the attacker should have a points advantage to make it fair any ways). you would need rules for raising ladders like on a 5+ the ladder is successfully raised.

im sure there may be some holes im forgetting but here is a start

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HOLLA

Hmm multiple D6+3 strength 9 hits can be a problem (or maybe not, depending on you point of view) but I imagine the spell caster causing the rock to crumble into sand or cause ivy to start lashing the defenders. Awesomely cool, but could be overpowered. I'll have to playtest and see.

I'd give fortifications some sort of defence value.

This defence value modifies the attacker's dice pool, especially for spells. Numenorean structures will have a very high value. Some block's stone wall will have a low value. Shooting the structure with siege engines reduces the value on a successful hit. This value applies to sections of wall, doors and so forth.

So for the attacker, he uses siege engines and spells to take out sections of wall. The defender attempts to stop him and then focus his defenders at any breeches.

Defenders could still be arranged by company, though they would be "spread" differently. Attackers on ladders would fight as reduced companies. If you can get five guys on the ladder, your company now has a resilience of five. You only get two attack dice for contact with the defenders. Climbing a siege ladder is tantamount to suicide after all.

The other possibility would be to "hack" the rules as I suggested in the other thread (about using WOTR for skirmishes) so that individual figures can fight in non-company formations. So you have lots of little skirmishes inside the fortification. Once inside, companies can reform and continue fighting company to company.

Gavin

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Spells that cause automatic hits ruin siege weapons in one turn nature wrath is very frustating and ringwraith are too strong in a siege cause they have special rules wich makes it too difficult for defenders.

Yeah. Strength from Corruption is great for taking out Dwarf Balista. I imagine similar results with that or Natures Wrath against most other siege weapons.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

You could always make some house rules, say perhaps that nature's wrath has no bonus when targeted at towers and such and maybe also say no spells cast on siege engines. IDK maybe it would work.

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

I would say the walls are either enchanted by the opposing spellcasters to be resistant to magic or gives protection to those on it, or has holy/unholy spirits guarding it that magic has no/little effect, or the defenders have a collective willpower enough to make spell casting futile. Whether this means magic is automatically dispelled or every unit on walls may take a 2+ Will of Iron roll requires some playtesting.

In concept I agree. In order to limit magic's effect during a siege some basic rule that either does not allow spells to be case to/from elevated positions or else gives an automatic 2+ or 3+ Will of Iron (good thought) in such cases. This could still allow for winged Nazgul, for example, to fly over and nail the forces on the other side but I guess this would put them at risk and may not be done much. Of course it also matches the terror and effect that the Nine had swooping down on Minas Tirith during the siege there. Either way though, it would limit or prevent spell users both on the walls and on the ground from casting at each other. If you want to use spells you need to either breech the walls or scale them. Once on the same level or side as your opponent then it's back to normal.

I do have to say though that most of your specific suggestions for explaining it aren't really in line with how I see magic and such things in Middle Earth (but then, not all of what GW has done in WotR magic is the way I see it anyway). I think just a basic rule without trying to come up with a ME "theme" justification is fine. After all, we're just trying to find some house-rule options to make siege play in WotR more practical and enjoyable and not trying to simulate something that's Tolkien-specific in the WotR system.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com